Vinyl Industry Stands Behind The Safety of Vinyl Toys

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey, November 19, 1998 – The vinyl industry today said the environmental group Greenpeace is poisoning the minds of American parents with scaremongering and misleading information labeling children’s playthings as "toxic toys."

"As we enter the Christmas season, to create unfounded fear in the mothers and fathers of America is as unholy a tactic as the group has ever used," said Robert Burnett, executive director of The Vinyl Institute. "For forty years, vinyl toys have been used enjoyably and safely by children around the world. They are sturdy, inexpensive and easy to keep clean. For Greenpeace to try to instill panic over their use is unconscionable."

Burnett said the vinyl industry has worked carefully and scientifically for years to ensure the safety of the products made from vinyl. "Our industry prides itself on being good product stewards and the record over decades supports that position. For Greenpeace to suggest otherwise is just plain false.

"A young father called our hot line today to ask what symptoms he should look for to know if his baby daughter had been poisoned by sucking on her toys," Burnett said. "We explained everything we knew about phthalates and the safety of vinyl toys. Then, we told him what we would like to tell every parent in America: In the forty or more years that vinyl toys have been a favorite plaything of children, there is no evidence of any child being harmed by them."

The Greenpeace news release dated Nov. 17, 1998, is a prime example of practiced deceit. In a headline on the release, Greenpeace says "Industry Admits to Using Toxic Chemicals in Vinyl Toys," without explaining that an extensive Dutch study of phthalate exposure from vinyl toys for children under 12 months said the possibility of a baby exceeding the recommended limit was "so rare that the statistical likelihood cannot be estimated."

More outrageous was Greenpeace’s statement in the same news release about toys that "Previously, the Vinyl Institute admitted that lead and cadmium are also deliberately added to vinyl children’s products."

Burnett explained, "This tactic is intended to make parents think that vinyl toys have lead and cadmium in them. This is blatantly false. Since 1978, the Consumer Products Safety Commission has prohibited lead in toys and neither it nor cadmium is used to make toys here. Very small amounts of lead are sometimes used in other children’s products – for example, backpacks, raincoats, and totebags."

To exceed the safe limit for such use established by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, a child would have to bite off and swallow a substantial piece of plastic every day for a year. The Greenpeace allegations that such products are unsafe was reviewed in 1997 by both the CPSC and the Product Safety Bureau of Health Canada. Both agencies disagreed with Greenpeace and concluded that lead and cadmium were not released in harmful amounts from the products. In addition, an analysis of Greenpeace’s claims by the scientific research firm Environ Corporation of Arlington, Va., said that Greenpeace "misinterpreted or misrepresented their own data."

"We understand why parents are concerned, especially when you consider the amount of misinformation being spread by Greenpeace. But we strongly support a parent’s decision not to use a product if they feel it is not safe or appropriate for their child," Burnett explained. "Most important, we want every parent to know they can buy, use or keep their current toys without any fear whatsoever about the safety of their child. Vinyl toys are good toys and good for children. That’s the truth of the matter."

Burnett made these additional points of information confirming the safety of vinyl toys and other vinyl children’s products:

• Concerns Over Very Young Children – Official concerns in Europe and the U.S. have been aimed only at toys for very young children, like teethers. Toys for older children are not in question.

• Dutch Consensus Study – This extensive study included adult volunteers sucking on vinyl toys and then spitting the saliva to be measured. The objective was to determine how much phthalates migrate out of toys and whether this migration presents a health risk. The study done by the Netherlands National Research Institute together with industry and consumer groups concluded that children who suck on vinyl toys are unlikely to be exposed to harmful levels since migration was within the tolerable daily intake set by the European Union. Studies of babies show they suck on toys an average of 45 minutes daily, not six hours as previously suggested. (Pacifiers are not made of vinyl.)

• CPSC Statement 10/9/97: "Greenpeace released a study today alleging that hazardous levels of lead and cadmium are present in many popular vinyl children’s products. Testing by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) does not support this conclusion."

• UK Lab Tests – The Laboratory of the Government Chemist in the United Kingdom developed two new test methods to predict conditions under which phthalate softeners are likely to leach from vinyl toys. The test results can be used to ensure safe levels of phthalates in baby toys.

Burnett also directed interested parents to call The Vinyl Institute at 1-800-969-VINYL (8469).

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